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Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior

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Published on: April 16, 2014

Top-down then automatic: Instructions can continue to influence visual search when no longer actively implemented.

Brett A Cochrane¹, Jay Pratt², Bruce Milliken³

¹School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK. brett.cochrane@abdn.ac.uk.

Attention, Perception & Psychophysics

|August 31, 2022

Summary

Top-down instructions in visual search can automatically influence behavior even when not actively used. This lingering effect on visual search persists until a new task replaces the old instruction.

Keywords:

Priming of pop-out Selection history Top-down Visual search

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Visual Perception

Background:

Top-down control allows voluntary modulation of cognitive processes.
Automaticity refers to processes occurring without conscious intent.
The Priming of Pop-out (PoP) effect demonstrates selection history influencing visual search.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the automaticity of top-down instructions in visual search.
To determine if instructions continue to influence visual search after active implementation ceases.
To examine the persistence of instructed biases on visual search performance.

Main Methods:

Participants performed a color singleton search task.
An imagery instruction (imagining the opposite color of the previous target) was used, opposing the PoP effect.
Automaticity was assessed by instructing participants to stop implementing the imagery instruction, and later by supplanting it with a new task.

Main Results:

When the imagery instruction was implemented, search performance was modulated in opposition to the typical PoP effect.
When participants attempted to cease the imagery instruction, the PoP effect was absent, indicating a lingering influence.
This lingering influence persisted even when participants reported successful cessation and was only removed when a new top-down task was introduced.

Conclusions:

Top-down instructions can exert automatic control over visual search.
These instructed influences can persist beyond the period of active implementation.
The findings highlight the robust and sometimes unintentional impact of prior instructions on ongoing cognitive processes.